Wayne Barrett

Barrett: I enjoyed living on campus as much as out because you seemed like you were a little bit more part of campus life when you’re right there. You know, you don’t ostracize yourself from all the things available to you on campus when you are living in the dorm. Some people wouldn’t be caught dead living in the dorm three years, but it didn’t bother me at all. It seemed like just everything was easier, getting to class, going to the games, you know, getting your meals, picking out your classes, going to the meetings, doing some night things on campus.

Stebbins: And what kind of stuff was that?

Barrett: You know, getting to the library. Well, we would go to a lot of basketball games, we’d go to the football games, some night games, we would have the Geography Clubs at night, sometimes they’d have those Wednesday night classes, or if I lived outside of the campus it’d just been more of a struggle, where if you go walk out the dorm you’re right there to all those little activities. We had a lot of speakers that spoke at, over at by [Graff] Main Hall there, what’s the Student Union?

Stebbins: Cartwright Center?

Barrett: Cartwright, yeah. At the Cartwright Center, yeah. We had speakers from all over the country that would speak there. Governor [of] California spoke there one time, Brown spoke there, he was running for President of the United States. Listened to an anthropologist, Margaret Mead, one night, spoke on campus, went and listened to her, you know, people like that that you might not come back to if you lived in West Salem or if you lived in Tomah. But if you’re right on campus, you just walked over and there it was. So I enjoyed that part. And there were a lot of speakers that were either at Mitchell [Hall] or [Graff] Main [Hall] or the [Student] Union.

Stebbins: And what other activities did you do on campus?

Barrett: Well, we went to a lot of plays too. We were the—my class in 1977 when I graduated was when Toland opened up, the theatre. The Fine Arts Center. And we took a theatre appreciation class, and we were required to see so many classes— or so many plays. And I still go back to campus and watch plays every year. And take, sometimes, friends with me that have never been on campus or never seen the theatre, and we do that quite often.

Stebbins: Yeah.

Barrett: Yeah. I really enjoy that part of it.

Barrett: Favorite semester. I think my favorite semester would have been my junior year. I started to get into my major quite a bit. I became a member of the Geography Club. We tended to have monthly meetings and got real close to some of the students in the same field. Got to know a few of the teachers that ran the club quite a bit. And I really enjoyed that time together because I felt like I was immersed in college, I was learning something, I was being active, and they were very good to me and I learned a lot from them.

Stebbins: Yeah. And I did a little bit of research into the Geography Club and they… if I can find it here. Yeah, they met on the second floor of Cowley [Hall] in room—a 2000 level room, of course. And then you’ve already sorta answered my question for that and how…

Barrett: Well, we didn’t always meet on the second floor in Cowley [Hall]. I remember a couple times we met at the 400 Club downtown. And…

Stebbins: And what’s the 400 Club?

Barrett: It was a bar. And as a college student we were thinking, “this is pretty good.” We could have a drink. We could talk about geography and where people were going and what they were gonna do and what their plans were. And as a junior, I was getting ready to go to Russia with some of the students and a couple of professors. And so we were planning that, and that was an exciting time.

Stebbins: So, you went to Russia then?

Barrett: Yes. We took a class. I took a class called “Soviet Seminar.” And it was a three-credit class and we would meet usually on Wednesdays. It was usually a three-hour class and we would talk about the history, and then we’d talk about the places we were gonna go to, the geography, and then we’d learn a little bit of the language, and then we’d talk something about the politics. So, we’d have different professors from across those curriculum areas come on those given Wednesdays. And then in the Spring, when we’d happen to be student teaching at Viroqua, I was given that two-week period off through Spring Break…

[Interview stops temporarily due to a phone call.]

Barrett: And, then in the Spring we ended up going to Russia for fifteen days and…

[Kathy Barrett can be heard in the background.]

Barrett: really, really got my urge to travel once that trip commenced. There was 350 of us from Wisconsin, from all over the system, Platteville, La Crosse, Eau Claire, Whitewater.

Stebbins: That all went on this one trip?

Barrett: Correct. And they were all college kids and their professors. And it really gave me the urge to do more traveling. I enjoyed that trip, learned a lot. Fred Starner, who was a teacher at the time, he was the coordinator that year. He was a calculus teacher and, but Bob Wingate, who’s still alive from what I understand, he started the program, I believe, and he took kids quite a few years before that. But Fred Starner took us that particular trip, he and his wife.

Stebbins: Okay. And didn’t you say you also went to Mexico?

Barrett: Yes, I went to Mexico the following year with Virgil Holder. We spent a couple weeks—we actually drove using vans, two vans from the university—to Mexico City and back. I don’t think I’d ever do that today, but, you know, at nineteen, twenty years old, you do some of those things, and enjoyed that trip too. It was over, just after Christmas, in the first part of the year when we were having our winter break. And really, really, enjoyed that trip too.

Stebbins: Yeah. And weren’t you one of the drivers down there?

Barrett: Yes, I drove one of the vans. I don’t know how or why, but I got roped into that, but I did. And had a lot of the Geography students with me, some of the History students. And I remember some were from, a couple were from Westby and a couple girls were from West Salem, a few from Holmen, one from Onalaska, myself, and quite a few others. We had one student, his name was Hashim, he was Iranian. And our professor had a hard time getting him across the border at Laredo [Texas]. Iran and the Mexican government were not liking each other too much back in the [19]70s, but eventually got him across the border and met us in Monterrey [Mexico] that evening, but told us to take off for our hotel and off we went. Yeah, interesting times.

Barrett: One of the things I remember a lot is Ed Weinzierl—who’s deceased now, but—we had him for a class called “Maps and Landforms.” And I remember it was in a lecture hall that slanted down to the floor. And Ed was working at the overhead. You remember those…machines? And we were taking some notes and he was going over different landforms and there was two couples down in the front and they were kind of talking. And he kind of looked at them, gave ‘em that stink eye, and they quieted down. Ten minutes later they started chit-chattin’ and he stopped and he just read them the riot act and threw them outta class, said “don’t ever come back.” And that made quite an impression on me. And the next year we took a course through Ed Weinzierl, it’s called “Geomorphology.” And one of the requirements was to have a weekend in the Baraboo Range. And so he drove us to Baraboo, and we studied the landforms and we got to know him very, very, well. And I remember him, the second morning we were there, we got on this landform, it was called the roche moutonnée—it’s a French term. And he had a thing of cigars in his pocket, and he whips ‘em out and he says “anybody for a cigar?” And a bunch of us went up and grabbed a cigar, and we were smoking a cigar and learning a lot about landforms. And I remember that to this day. And we really liked Ed Weinzierl, he’s a very good teacher and made a good impression upon me. Then I had a history professor, and I’m trying to think of his name, but I took a course on Latin American politics. When I was teaching high school at Brookwood High School, where I spent my career and I had to take an extra course and he had me meet him at his house. He lived between the campus and the old Kmart. And it was an election year and he wanted to watch the presidential debate. And so, I met at his house before the debate and we did… a series of readings and we discussed them and then we watched a little bit of the debate and I drove home. But not often do you go to a professor’s house for a class. And I’m trying to remember his name. I’m looking at your list here, see if I can…

[Kathy Barrett can be heard in the background.]

Barrett: Well, I don’t see his name here. But anyway, that made quite an impression on me. I thought I was movin’ up the ladder when you got to go to the professor’s house and discuss your homework.

Stebbins: So, I guess you really established some good working relationships with quite a few professors?

Barrett: I did, I enjoyed the professors. I thought they were very, very, down-to-earth and they were very good to me. And as a result, I thought I got a little bit more out of the class then you normally would have.

Stebbins: And that really helped you succeed in college then?

Barrett: Yep.

Stebbins: And then are there any other professors then there that you see that really made an impact on you?

Barrett: Well, I see one John Hoefer. I had John Hoefer for a geography class, and it was a course on—what was the name of the course? I think it was like a cultural geography. And we walk into—he’s kind of a little bit on the unusual side, I would say. And we walked into the class and he looked at us all and he goes “ein bisschen Land und ein bisschen Menschen.” And we looked at him like, “what?” And he said “that’s a little bit of land and a little bit of people,” and that was the basis of the course—and that was day one. About halfway through the semester, we’re in the second floor in Cowley [Hall] and someone came in and whispered in his ear and he looked a little rattled. Come to find out his house was on fire.

Stebbins: Really?

Barrett: Yeah, he lived down on State Road, not too far from campus and he always rode this little scooter to school. It was like a 50 cc scooter. It was always down below, we could see it. He finished the class, went out of that building with a little double-step, went down and got on his scooter and tended to his house. He told us about it the next week. It didn’t burn down…but he didn’t leave right away, and I’ll never forget that.

Stebbins: Really?

Barrett: Yeah, John Hoefer was his name. I enjoyed him. And Jerry Culver, I mentioned his wife taught anatomy classes, physiology classes, and he was the head of the Geography department for a while. And I would usually meet him down at the [La Crosse] Public Library on 7th Street. He’d be reading the newspapers and he’d be taking a lunch break, and I’d sometimes ride my bike down there and read a magazine or newspaper, or just go take a ride and he was down there practically every day, reading the newspaper at 11:30, 12:00. And I only had him for one class, but I do remember him. And I think my favorite teacher was Robert Wingate.

Stebbins: Ok.

Barrett: Robert Wingate, I had a number of classes with him. He’s the one who started that Russian, Soviet Seminar class where they took a trip to Russia. And I remember, as seniors, we went on a field trip to Westby to Tri-State Breeders [Cooperative] and then down along Genoa, and he was talking about the landforms and the configurations of the area and the coulees and then we had a, we physically went in the Tri-State Breeders [Cooperative] for a maybe half-hour. And it was a very nice Saturday afternoon, I remember that. But Bob Wingate still, even after I graduated, would take tickets for football games and was he would be on staff in the stadium, keeping things in line, and even at basketball games, so I got the chance to talk to him twenty, thirty years after I graduated.

Stebbins: And he was still doing that at UWL?

Barrett: Correct, correct. I still see him once in a while. Yep. Yeah, even today.

Stebbins: Really?

Barrett: Yep. I mentioned this Herman Nelson. I remember him, as a freshman, sophomore, I had a couple classes with him. And he always wore bowties. He was tall, lanky gentleman and we had a class where there’s probably eighty or ninety kids in the class, it was in a lower floor of Cowley [Hall]. It might have been “Weather and Climate,” “Maps and Landforms,” one of those basic courses. And he’d take role and the next day he would call us by our name. He had this photogenic memory, where he could just [Barrett snaps his fingers] come up with the kids’ names like that. I really was kind of amazed by that. This James Parker I had for history. He was a very, very, good professor, enjoyed his work, along with Martin Zanger, those were two, maybe the most popular professors in history during the [1970]s when I was there. Everybody wanted to take their classes.

Stebbins: Really?

Barrett: Yeah.

Stebbins: So, it was always I guess sort of a race when you had to sign up for them?

Barrett: Correct, correct. Margaret Chew, I only had one class with Margaret Chew, she was quite elderly at the time. She ran our Geography Club for a couple years.

Stebbins: Ok.

Barrett: She was kind of the lady who put that together from what I understand. And she’s had quite a interesting life, if you ever read her bio, she’s talked with kings and queens, and ridden camels in the desert with higher-ups, and she’s been all over the world. I don’t think she was ever married, from what I understand, but she had quite a life. But she was quite elderly, even when I was there, I think, but interesting lady, very interesting lady.

Stebbins: Now you’d mentioned in our pre-interview meeting about a memory with John Snyder.

Barrett: Yeah, Snyder I remember, he would come into history class and he would have these big boots on with blue jeans rolled way up and he’d have a flannel shirt on. And very, very, just gonna dress the way he wanted, not the way maybe the university people wanted him to dress. And I remember one time, I believe it was him, he came and he had two pistols on his side. They weren’t loaded—you wouldn’t get away with that today—but we were studying the American West and he wanted to show us what a revolver, a Colt really looked like and how it was used by the early settlers and some of the gunslingers. And I remember that quite a bit. It made an impression upon me.

Stebbins: I’d imagine.

Barrett: Well our process was to go over to—and I believe it was at Mitchell [Hall], I don’t think it was at [Graff] Main Hall, but I think it was at Mitchell [Hall]—and they would have these screens up on the wall and they would have all the classes that you were required to take, and then they would have the professors who were available, and then the times. And then you would fill out your, I think it was a Form Eleven it was called at the time. And then you would take it to a person at the desk, someone that would be, you know, responsible for you and so many students. And then if the teacher was still available and they hadn’t scratched his name off, and it wasn’t full, you would get that class at that time. And then you’d go to the second one and sometimes we’d have to go back and change because the class would fill up. Especially the basic classes that all freshman, sophomores, had to take would fill up quite quickly. And the professors that were real popular, [Barrett snaps his fingers] they would go very quickly as well. Yeah. And we were a little disappointed sometimes when we would get a time that we didn’t like or a professor that we didn’t know, or we weren’t able to get the one that everybody told us “you should take that person.” But it all seemed to work out. Today I think they just—and I think late in our career—they basically just, you just fill out the classes you needed and then they picked the time and the professor, you didn’t have that choice.

Stebbins: Oh, really?

Barrett: Yeah.

Stebbins: That was in your last year?

Barrett: The last part of college. Yeah.

Stebbins: Well, that’s just probably more ‘cause you needed to get them done?

Barrett: I think so, yeah.

Stebbins: So how early were your classes then?

Barrett: Well, I had classes at eight, nine o’clock in the morning, ten o’clock. I always liked taking a class on Wednesday night. It kind of took that week and gave you a little bit of extra time during the day. We’d have a class usually from six thirty to nine thirty, three credits. And I usually took sixteen, seventeen, eighteen credits. And it just seemed like that Wednesday night was a time when you could, you know, middle of the week, you weren’t too too busy yet, and it left the rest of the day where Monday, Tuesday, Wednesday, Thursday, Friday you had a little bit less time because you had three credits taken up on Wednesday night. I didn’t care for eight o’clock in the morning classes, [Stebbins laughs] but today it wouldn’t be a problem, but in college, you know, eight o’clock seems early and I didn’t like taking three, four o’clock in the afternoon classes. It just seemed like your day should be done by then. But I had ‘em too.

Stebbins: Alright, and then, I guess we can talk about how the technology has changed. You’d mentioned having a projector, whereas now we have…

Barrett: Yeah, they used a lot of overhead projectors. The phones—which of course we had no cell phones—but I used to have to go to the end of the hall at [O.] White Hall and use the phone on the wall, and there’d be four, five, six, eight guys waitin’ to make a phone call, and so oftentimes you’d get discouraged and just forget it. So, I didn’t call home very often at all. And then I had a class in computers, in Wing [Technology Center] building and I remember the computer was about as big as I was [Stebbins laughs] and we had these cards, you know, you had a punch card type thing. And then I had to buy a Texas Instrument calculator for a math class, and it was very, very, expensive. Today, of course, you can get them for a little bit of nothing or you wouldn’t even need ‘em, but…

Stebbins: About fifteen dollars now.

Barrett: Ok, ok.